State v. Stewart

• Citation: 240 S.W. 824
• Decision Date: 08 May 1922
• Docket Number: No. 3147.,3147.
• Parties: STATE ex rel. JOHNSON et al., County Judges, v. STEWART, Circuit Judge.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Missouri (US)

240 S.W. 824

STATE ex rel. JOHNSON et al., County Judges, v. STEWART, Circuit Judge.

No. 3147.

Springfield Court of Appeals. Missouri.

May 8, 1922.

Original proceeding in prohibition by the State of Missouri, on the relation of Wood T. Johnson and others, Judges of the County Court of Christian County, against Fred Stewart, Judge of the Circuit Court of the Thirty-First Circuit of Missouri. Certified to the Supreme Court for determination of constitutional question.

Moore, Barrett & Moore, and G. Purd Hays, all of Ozark, for relators.

Chas. F. Boyd, Pros. Atty., of Ozark, and W. L. Vandeventer, of Hartville, for respondent.

COX, P. J.

This is an original proceeding in this court seeking a writ of prohibition against Judge Fred Stewart, Judge of the circuit court of the Thirty-First circuit, which includes Christian county, to prohibit his proceeding further by certiorari to review the action of the county court of Christian county in releasing certain prisoners from jail on writ of habeas corpus.

The history of this matter is as follows: In May, 1921, during the session of the circuit court of Christian county, a grand jury was impaneled and certain witnesses summoned and examined before it. Three of these witnesses refused to answer questions propounded to them by the grand jury, and were brought before Judge Stewart and by him adjudged guilty of contempt and sentenced to jail for 30 days. Commitments were issued and the parties placed in jail, and there held by the sheriff under these commitments. After the grand jury had been discharged and the circuit court had adjourned and the judge of the court left the county, the three prisoners in jail under the commitments aforesaid applied to the county court of Christian county for a writ of habeas corpus. This writ was issued, the prisoners brought before the county court, and, after a hearing, that court decided that the prisoners were being illegally deprived of their liberty and ordered them discharged, which was done. Afterward, the prosecuting attorney of Christian county applied to Judge Stewart, the circuit judge who had sentenced the prisoners to jail for contempt, for a writ of certiorari, directed to the judges of the county court and the clerk of said court, requiring them to certify to the circuit court of Christian county the record and files in the habeas corpus proceeding before that court with a view to having such record quashed. This writ of certiorari was issued and served, and then the judges of the county court applied to this court for a writ of prohibition against Judge Stewart to prevent him from reviewing their action in the habeas corpus Proceeding. A temporary writ was issued, and the cause is now here to determine whether that writ shall be made permanent.

The question involved in this application for a permanent writ of prohibition is whether the superintending control of the circuit court over the county court granted by the state Constitution authorizes the circuit court to review the action of the county court in a habeas corpus proceeding. The decision on that question requires the solution of two other questions:

First. Has the county court authority to issue and hear writs of habeas corpus?

Second. If the county court has such power, is it an unlimited power, and can it in that proceeding pass on the question of the legality of the imprisonment of a person committed under an order or judgment of the circuit...